Abstract:
There is a reciprocal relationship between glucose and fatty acid oxidation. Over nutrition or obesity causes perturbation in
this reciprocal metabolic interrelationship leading to “metabolic inflexibility” resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction
causing insulin resistance. Excess fat intake in obesity results in an inhibition of fatty acid oxidation in the adipose tissue
accompanied by increased BCAA catabolism in skeletal muscle. This results in an increase in the levels of acyl carnitines
which impair insulin action. It is suggested that serum acyl carnitine levels could therefore be taken as markers of insulin
resistance.
